Answer to Question #109440 in Cell Biology for Fiona

Question

what happens to the surface area to volume ratio of a cell as the cell grows?

what happens to the sa:v ratio when a cell undergoes division?

Answer 1

As a cell grows bigger as its internal volume enlarges the cell membrane expands. The volume increases more rapidly than the surface area so the relative amount of surface area available to pass materials to a unit volume of the cell gets decreased.

So as a cell grows, volume increases faster than surface area causes a decreased SA:Vol ratio.The surface area to volume ratio (SA:V) is related to cell division is that as the cells becomes bigger the surface area is decreased for its size.

The surface area to volume ratio of a cell gets too small then the cell  undergo mitotic cell division or it will no longer be able to function.